JARRYD Hayne’s odds of playing running back at the San Francisco 49ers this NFL season just got a little bleaker.

The 49ers selected University of Florida running back Kelvin Taylor on Saturday with a sixth-round pick at the NFL Draft in Chicago.

Taylor is the 22-year-old son of Pro Bowl running back Fred Taylor and possesses a quality Hayne lacked in the Australian’s rookie season with the 49ers last year.

While Hayne fumbled three times, including dropping a punt in the regular season opener, Taylor never fumbled during his 486 carries and 510 touches at Florida.

“We got him on the phone and the thing he said was, ‘You won’t regret this decision’,” 49ers general manager Trent Baalke, discussing Taylor, told reporters.

“That really gave us insight to who he really was.”

Hayne’s newest competition.Source:Twitter

With the addition of Taylor, the 49ers have Hayne, Carlos Hyde, Shaun Draughn, DuJuan Harris, Mike Davis and Kendall Gaskins at running back.

The 49ers, with about 90 players on their off-season roster, will cut their squad to 53 before the start of the NFL season in September, with two of the running backs likely to be casualties. The 49ers took three running backs into each game last season. Hayne’s prospects are helped by his utility value as a back-up running back who can also be the team’s punt and kick returner on the special teams unit.

Another Australian will join Hayne in the mix for an NFL spot next year, with Georgia Tech defensive lineman Adam Gotsis drafted by the Denver Broncos.

ANOTHER AUSSIE MAKES THE GRADE

Denver Broncos select Adam Gotsis.Source:AP

THE Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos have rolled out the red carpet to welcome their prized Australian recruit Adam Gotsis.

The smile never left the 195cm tall, 127kg Gotsis’ face after he arrived in Denver and toured the Broncos’ headquarters on Saturday less than a day after they snatched him with the last pick in the second round of the NFL Draft in Chicago.

“He’s one of the gym rat types of guys,” Broncos’ defensive line coach Bill Kollar, who convinced Broncos’ general manager John Elway to select Gotsis, told reporters.

“All he wants to do is play football.”

Kollar joked Gotsis’ Australian accent might take a while to understand.

The hulking defensive tackle from Melbourne, just like Jarryd Hayne at the San Francisco 49ers, has had to answer some curly Australiana questions from curious Denver reporters.

One asked Gotsis if he preferred INXS or AC/DC.

While some media members criticised the Broncos for using an early pick on Gotsis, the 23-year-old who has huge 27.3cm hands did score some points with his choice of band.

“I’m a big AC/DC fan,” Gotsis replied.

“My mum actually got them to play at her high school back in Australia when they were a local band.”

Gotsis was also quizzed about his Aussie rules background.

He played from the age of six through to 18-years-old in Melbourne, but from about 15, after getting hooked on the NFL Madden computer game, also played organised American football in Melbourne from about the age of 15.

Beast.Source:Getty Images

A coach in Melbourne had a connection at Georgia Tech, Gotsis joined the US college as an 18-year-old and has never looked back, becoming the first Australian to be drafted so early by an NFL team.

Gotsis said the endurance Aussie rules players need has helped him become one of the top defensive tackles of the draft.

“It definitely helps,” Gotsis, explaining Aussie rules, said.

“You end up running eight or 10 miles a game continuously and playing with bursts as well.” The Broncos hope Gotsis, who is recovering from a torn left anterior cruciate ligament, will help fill the large hole in their defensive line left after Malik Jackson was enticed away from the Super Bowl winners by the Jacksonville Jaguars with a six-year, $US90 million ($A118 million) contract.

Gotsis will sign a four-year rookie contract worth about $US4.8 million ($A6.3 million).

He said he will also have to apply for a US work visa.

The Broncos released video of the moment Elway and head coach Gary Kubiak called Gotsis to let him know they would draft him.

“Adam, John Elway. How are you, sir?” Elway, a two-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback for the Broncos, said at the top of his congratulatory call to the Australian.

Gotsis had been nervously watching the TV telecast of the draft in his apartment in Atlanta with his brother, two sisters and Georgia Tech team-mates and friends.

“We’re looking forward to getting you in here and get to work,” Elway told Gotsis.